The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Volume 5) [Hardcover]

Edward Gibbon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: monawli. Ho w.- ignorant, the profane historian, of the testimony which he is compelled to deliver in the ecclesiastical page of Evagr us, that the Palladium was exposed on the rampart, and that, the water which had been sprinkled on the holy face, instead of quenching, added new fuel to the flames of the besieged. After this important service, the image of fidessa was preserved with respect and gratitude; and if the Armenians rejected the legend, the more credulous Greeks adored the similitude, which was not the work of any mortal pencil, but the immediate creation of the divine original. The style and sentiments of a Byzantine hymn will declare how far their worship was removed from the grossest idolatry. " How can we with mortal eyes contemplate this image, whose celestial splendor the host of heaven presumes not to behold ? He who dwells in heaven, condescends this day to visit us by his venerable image; He who is seated on the cherubim, visits us this day by a picture, which the Father has delineated with his immaculate hand, which he has formed in an ineffable manner, and which we sanctify by adoring it with fear and love." Before the end of the sixth century, these images, made without hands, (in Greek it is a single word,11) were propagated in the camps and cities of the Eastern empire :la they were the objects of worship, and the instruments of miracles ; and in the hour of danger or tumult, ther venerable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the courage, or repress the fury, of the Roman legions. Of these pictures, the far greater part, the transcripts of a human pencil, could only pretend to a secondary likeness and improper title: but there were some of higher descent, who derived their resemblance from an immediate contact 11 './/aigoTtoi'ijTos. See Ducange, in...

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 552 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish.com (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1404307982
• ISBN-13: 978-1404307988
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,744,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)